Has justice been done to the masterpiece in literature?

Karuvala Gedara (House of Shadows)

By Ranga Chandrarathne
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With the teledrama based on Martin Wickramasinghe’s seminal novel Karuvala Gedara soon to be aired on ITN, a question arises whether the television adaptation has done justice to the original novel.

Veteran cinema personality Dr. Tissa Abeysekara has scrip written for the teledrama while it was directed by Sudath Rohana. The cast include Janaka Premalal, Chandani Senevirathne, Semini Iddamalgoda, Roshan Pilapitiya, Chathurika Peiris, Prageeth Ratnayake and Buddhadasa Vithanachchi.

The story is set against the pastoral village of Koggala in the Southern province at the tail end of the 19th century. Apart from depicting the life in the coastal village, story captures the undercurrent of social transformation, from feudal society to a modern society dominated by the commerce and trade.

This is a recurrent theme in Wickramasinghe’s work. The author grotesquely portrays Sinhalese society and the life in the village, the emergence of petty bourgeois class and hapless actors who have caught up in the uneasy transition.

Theetan, a fisherman gradually transformed himself into a respectable merchant and landowner. His children embrace the brave new world; Sirimal, one of his sons educated to become an Attorney-at-Law and acclimatized with the busy life style in the city of Colombo, transforming himself into a brown sahib while the other son Nimal acquiring his father’s business acumen grows up to be a prosperous businessman. The story is woven around Theetan’s family against the backdrop of social transition.

Compared to Lester James Peries’s Giraya, Karuvala Gedara is marked for its immaturity in acting and not so excellent cinematography and costume-design which is sometimes reminiscent of cheap Hindi tele-dramas that have been dubbed in Sinhala.

It is incomprehensible whether the Director had paid scant attention to the milieu in which the story is unfolded. It is naive that the director has tried to borrow some feathers from Hindi soap operas and thereby damaging the otherwise brilliant plot and screen-play.

In Giraya and Kaddula a striking feature was in an impressive setting, portrayal of characters and costume design which were in keeping with the milieu against which the story was set. There are other tele-dramas which were excellent productions, sometimes, superior in quality to the original work.

Perhaps, the best example for this category of tele-drams is Ambayahaluwo based on the novel of the same name by T. B. Illangaratne. Though the novel is not considered a classic, the tele-drama excelled on many counts; in excellent setting, acting and play-back songs.

However, here in Karuvala Gedara most of the actors and actresses failed to live up to the ideals portrayed by Martin Wickramasinghe. Semini Iddamalgoda’s portrayal is a complete failure, especially in the scene she laments which is far from realistic.

One cannot argue that the scope of setting is, by and largely, contributed to the overall success of a tele-drama. For instance, Asoka Handagama’s Prabhataya, Maghatha, Synthetic Sihina have excelled in cinematography and portrayal of characters.

In Nagenahira Weralen Esena by Asoka Handagama, though the entire story was unfolded in the confinements of a refugee camp, the cinematography as well as portrayal of characters is excellent.

It is a pity that Karuvala Gedara has fallen into the category of cheap fantasies such as Uppala Wanna and Saradiel . Despite the highly impressive script by Dr. Tissa Abeysekara, the tele-drama has, apparently, not done justice either to the author, Martin Wickramasinghe or to the novel Karuvala Gedara.